The global burden of non-communicable diseases such as overweight and obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases forces us to re-think about the nutritional quality of our foods and the carbohydrate quality in our diet. Meanwhile, there is broad scientific consensus that carbohydrate-based foods with low or reduced glycemic properties should be the preferred food choices.
The International Carbohydrate Quality Consortium, a group of internationally leading scientists in the field of GI and GL research, discussed the importance of carbohydrate quality along the Glycemic Index, Glycemic Load and Glycemic Response in Stresa, Italy, on 7th June 2013 and concluded in their consensus statement that convincing evidence exists that reducing the postprandial glycemic response has health benefits in the management and prevention of diabetes mellitus (improving insulin sensitivity and beta-cell function) and the prevention of coronary heart disease (improving blood lipids and inflammatory markers), and with probable evidence also in weight management (reducing body fat mass). (Augustin et al 2015)
Essentially everyone can benefit from reducing glycemia. Blood sugar management and its benefits to metabolic health is addressed is addressed here with relevance to those who want to care for their blood sugar levels (health conscious eaters) as well as infants and young children, pregnant women, seniors or those who need to care for their blood sugar levels e.g. when facing raised blood sugar levels and the metabolic syndrome or when being diagnosed with diabetes mellitus.
Reference
Augustin LS, Kendall CW, Jenkins DJ et al (2015) Glycemic index, glycemic load and glycemic response: An International Scientific Consensus Summit from the International Carbohydrate Quality Consortium (ICQC). Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis 25(9):795-815. doi: 10.1016/j.numecd.2015.05.005.